Peripatetic Roper: July 5

The show with Emi Shirasaki, Daisuke Fuwa and Shibuzashirasu was great. Nice train ride out to the venue, good hang before the show, great show, good after-gig hang and a belated Tokyo initiation - I missed the last train home. Fortunately, it was the last train of three and I was only two stations from my ultimate goal. The cost of the taxi was not exorbitant.

Shibuzashirasu is a great band. They are the band a lot of guys at home wish they had. It was a curious situation, sitting in with a band that knows all of the music, but there is no music because they know it. There were charts for Emi's three features, but other than that it was jump aboard, then hang on for dear life. Those guys go for a wild ride. They made me very welcome. I handed Craig (Emi's husband) my camera and he got some great shots.

The ride out...was relatively easy since I did the trial-run the day before. I also left earlier than I needed to avoid some of the Friday getting-of-work train crowds. The last thing you want is to be in a train packed like sardines with a tuba, even a Travel Tuba. You become an instant enemy. The best thing about the trip out is that for the last train I get on at the beginning of the line and off at the end. I can kind of control my space if I get on as soon as it empties on arrival from the other direction.

By this point the last train was pretty empty, but believe me, earlier on I knew more about the effectiveness of my fellow passengers deodorants than I wanted to.

The show...

Emi, myself and the violinist in the group, hanging before the show. He uses a five-string violin.

The marquee.

Jane Rigler, Carl Stone and myself. Jane did the program back when it was a six-month affair. I can't imagine! She gave me some advice before I came over. She was back for a different project. Carl, of course is Carl, an invaluable resource and a mentsch to boot.